Transatlantic translanguaging in Zimdancehall: Reassessing linguistic creativity in youth language practices

The present contribution explores the relationship between music and youth language by focusing on Zimbabwean youth language practices in Zimdancehall music. Among other creative strategies, the examples analyzed in this paper feature transatlantic translanguaging practices and thus illustrate the often called upon global dimension of youth language practices with regard to connections between Africa and its Caribbean diaspora. While youth language practices have often been marked as ‘specially creative’ practices by linguistic scholars, my objective is to show that while the youth language practices found in Zimdancehall music are certainly creative, they are as such not different from linguistic practices in other sociolinguistic contexts. In fact, linguistic creativity should not be regarded as a special practice, but rather as a common phenomenon in the way human beings use language. In this regard, this paper presents a fresh look at youth language by deconstructing the myth of its otherness and placing it in its contexts as common language practice.